Today concludes the two week time line for the experiment in Methodist social media exposure. There were 759 views of the YouTube video promoting Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition: John Wesley’s Sermons for Today
Blake Huggins was surprised at how well the experiment was going in a comment he left on my post about the experiment at one week. Henry Neufeld, on the other hand, was disappointed with the results.
I am not exactly sure what to make of the results. I think the experimented would have been more successful if the video that was circulated had not been promoting a book generally, and promoting a book I co-authored more particularly. I noticed comments on several blogs that expressed that they were disappointed to find at the end of the video that it was just promoting another book. (Though I was also surprised that so many people seemed to feel that United Methodists have so much information out there about their books. I have tended to feel the other way, that not very many people know about United Methodist publications outside of a very committed group.) I was also a bit disappointed that the views of the video decreased so rapidly in the second week.
On the other hand, I was surprised that more than 25 bloggers linked to the video in some way on their blog. And I do think it is significant that simply passing on a video was able to revive a video that was basically dead on YouTube. A change from 44 views in 6 months to 715 views in 2 weeks is a significant change. I think that this experiment does show that there exists a significant group of Methodists who are willing to work together in some capacity to raise awareness and get the word out. The big question is: Get the word out about what? Over the last few weeks I have found myself dreaming about the ways that the blogosphere could be used as a resource for helping to better get the Wesleyan message out there – not just to other Methodists, but more deeply into the emerging church and other places where meaningful conversations are happening about what it means to be a Christian, how to live faithfully, the meaning of life, etc.
As I indicated in the original post about this experiment, I will write a letter to the folks at Discipleship Resources and the General Board of Discipleship letting them know about the experiment and encouraging them to think about ways to use the internet as a means of communication and ways to work with Methodists who already have a presence and audience on the web. I will pass on any response that is appropriate to publicly communicate.
In the meantime, what are your thoughts about the experiment? Do you see anything more than this can point to or lead to?
by Darius L. Salter. So, I did something completely out of character, I made an impulse purchase and bought the book.
Among Wesley scholars this is the book that is usually cited related to the history of the early Methodist class meeting. Watson discusses, as the subtitle indicates, the origins and significance of the class meeting. The primary value of this book, in my view, is that it was the first in depth academic exploration of a piece of the Methodist organizational structure. It helped moved scholarship beyond passing references to the importance of the class meeting and began to actually look at it in its own right.
As I remember it when I read this book a few years ago, this is an easier read than Watson’s book. It also seems that it is currently being read by a wider audience (especially if the current amazon ranks of each book are any indication… though these can fluctuate quite a bit). To be fair, Watson’s Early Methodist Class Meeting is not necessarily intended to appeal to a lay audience.
Manskar takes a bit broader approach, focusing on the importance of accountable discipleship more generally, with roughly one third of the book focusing specifically on the distinctly Methodist approach to discipleship. In part, Accountable Discipleship also seeks to flesh out the rationale for Covenant Discipleship Groups, more on that below. (Manskar is also the director of Accountable Discipleship at the 
was.) The books in the trilogy are 
; 
; and 
.
(which is, incidentally, an excellent survey of American Religious History):
Kevin M. Watson 